Another Advantage for Vaping?

Another Defeat for Tobacco Companies or Advantage for Vaping?

Big tobacco business has been dealt another regulatory blow that may further help vape and vaping rise to the fore as the realistic alternative to smoking.

Back in May, the Department of Health issued new guidance for manufacturers and retailers that packaging must be standardised. Packets will be the same colour, using the same fonts. It makes cigarette branding all but obsolete. This week the tobacco giants lost their latest appeal against the new rules.

A number of companies, including giants British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco, Japan Tobacco International and Phillip Morris, had made an legal challenge claiming the rules would infringe their intellectual property, and human, rights.

Vaping - The Alternative

Cutting through all this smoke is, of course, vaping, the alternative to traditional cigarettes. While vaping is currently going through its own regulatory wranglings in the form of the Tobacco Products Directive it is still the only viable alternative to smoking.

And interestingly this week Phillip Morris announced its own ecig-style alternative to smoking, while British American Tobacco opened its first vape store to show people how to use its vape products. If nothing else these moves are an endorsement to the emerging reality of vaping and e-cigarettes.

Cigarette supporters believe the new packaging won’t reduce the numbers of people smoking, but will affect consumer choice because some brands will disappear. The government claims there will be a generation that grows up without smoking. One anti-smoking group has said it hopes it will lead the charge in getting the same laws introduced in other countries.

And Vapemate is already aware of companies that have pulled tobacco from its counters in favour of eliquids. In the present climate a retailer stands to make a larger profit from selling eliquid behind the counter than traditional cigarettes.